So sorry for the delay in posting! I'm just really unfamiliar with the whole blogging thing and how to moderate and post, etc.
I have been getting healthier and healthier for the past two years since my original diagnosis and I have even been told by my pulmonologist at Duke University Medical Center that I may be able to put this disease behind me! Later he said that while remission is not a word he would use with this disease, that keeping my ILD in check is what he thinks I'll be able to do with infrequent PFT Test monitoring, etc. He even suggested in Nov. 2014, that I might not need to make a followup appointment, but I insisted on another visit in a year, just to make sure everything is continuing to go well.
So the really good news is that I am currently on a relatively low dose of 6 mg/day of prednisone, and hope to taper that down to 5 mg in another month or so. I have NO SYMPTOMS anymore of ILD, that I notice, and mostly I think it is because I have been WALKING, WALKING, WALKING!!! By the way, I am now walking 4 miles/day on at least 5 days a week. Two days a week I do some light weight lifting on machines at the gym. I have recently walked as much as 6 miles on the treadmill at a pace of 4 or 4.1 MPH, and I did that in a single session of less than 90 minutes! (And normally I now do at least 4 miles in an hour.) So I have become a firm believer in the power of walking if you have a lung disease like mine and you can walk through the pain at first. (I used to hear the crackling in my lungs from my disease, late at night when everything was quiet, but I haven't heard that in more than a year!)
Anyway, some more good news (since my last post, which was forever ago) is that I have maintained a lower weight for almost 2 years now. I have done this by continuing the 5:2 Fast Diet (book is by Michael Mosley). My wife and I saw a program by him on PBS and decided to try it, especially after my brother had tried it with success. A year ago I weighed about 205 lbs., and I am currently hovering between 175.5 and 178.5 pounds. I am about 5' 10 inches tall — so, while my BMI is slightly higher than the normal range or slightly overweight, I feel I'm pretty much in control and can bring my weight down more by fasting (limiting my calorie intake to around 650 on those Fast Days).
I also have a recipe for "Ak-Maks & Lox" as we call it, which uses the Ak-Mak crackers and 1/3 less fat cream cheese and 1 oz. of smoked salmon or lox, capers and chopped red onion and tomatoes to make something similar to a traditional Bagel & Lox. We love it and it is our evening meal on Fast Days and contains just over 200 calories! For breakfast, we have one fried egg, a piece of whole grain toast with butter on it, 6 oz. of orange juice, and coffee. For lunch my wife makes a smoothie which is healthy and contains about 60-70 calories.
I post this so that others may be able to benefit from what has worked for me, but I wish you all the best results in any way that might work for you! Thanks for reading!
Feel free to comment or ask questions, as I think I've now figured out how to moderate and post responses, etc.
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